James Steiner

Southwest Airlines had to abruptly ground 34 Boeing 737-700 aircraft on Thanksgiving Eve when the low-fare behemoth discovered that the maintenance paperwork related to the grounded planes was not in compliance with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) safety directives. Per an FAA mandate, Southwest was required to do immediate detailed visual inspections of the 34 grounded aircraft. A Southwest spokesperson said the carrier voluntarily followed the FAA mandate. (www.bizjournals.com) Mehr...

An Alaska Airlines pilot stuck in a holding pattern due to fog at Sea-Tac Airport near Seattle on Tuesday decided to take the monotony out of the delay by getting clearance to circle Mount Rainier as a treat for his passengers. Flight 401 from Las Vegas was forced to travel in a circle over Lewis County south of the airport before its pilot took the side trip around the highest mountain in the Cascade Range, as reported by KOMO and the Seattle PI. (www.msn.com) Mehr...

Southwest Airlines abruptly grounded 66 Boeing 737 aircraft in its fleet last Wednesday after issues with the carrier’s aircraft weight records were discovered. In an internal memo to employees on the matter that was obtained by the Chicago Business Journal, Southwest said: “Today (Wednesday) we discovered the weights being sent to our Dispatch Operation did not match our other weight records for a number of aircraft in the fleet. As a result, and out of an abundance of caution, we have stopped… (www.bizjournals.com) Mehr...

Last June, chief executive officer Abdulaziz Al Raisi has revealed plans of the Gulf carrier about renewing its widebody fleet. The national carrier of Oman wants to replace some of its aging A330s with new devices. The state-owned company thinks that the next-generation widebody aircraft with higher capacity are best-suited to the airline's expanding network. Oman Air management is currently working on a dozen possible new route launches next year. After nearly two years of evaluation, the… (airlinerwatch.com) Mehr...

The text alert from United Airlines sounded ominous. "Your 2:13 p.m. United flight to Chattanooga is delayed because of unforeseen circumstances,'' it said. "This is an unusual situation and we're working hard to solve it. We value your time and we're sorry for the inconvenience.'' Unusual was putting it mildly. And the "situation" wasn't news to the 50 passengers on Flight 5277 on Oct. 16. They received the alert after the problem arose,… (www.usatoday.com) Mehr...

The wide-body registered 9M-MRL, had already been painted with the livery of Zimbabwe Airways. But it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Kansas City instead of Harare on November 16 for a new customer. The “Z” and “W” letters on the livery were removed to hide the name of the company. The new owner of the device is the U.S carrier Jet Midwest, according to rumors. The initial plan was to acquire four Boeing 777-200ER that were removed from the fleet of Malaysia Airlines. But the airline has managed so… (airlinerwatch.com) Mehr...

Southwest Airlines Co.’s dedication to an all-737 fleet entered a new phase Sunday as the carrier closed out deliveries of one generation of the jet and turned attention to the next. From now on, the airline will receive only 737 Max planes, the latest iteration of the narrow-body aircraft that is Boeing Co.’s largest source of profit. Southwest operates the biggest 737 fleet. Southwest first ordered 63 of Boeing’s 737-700s in 1993, serving as the launch customer for the so-called Next… (www.yahoo.com) Mehr...

The $30 bag fee is gaining traction across U.S. airlines as summer travel winds down and carriers look to boost revenue to offset higher fuel prices. United Continental Holdings Inc. increased the charge for passengers’ first checked bag by $5 on Friday, matching a move by JetBlue Airways Corp. earlier in the week. The fee changes apply to United tickets purchased Aug. 31 and later. The move by United, the No. 3 U.S. airline, bolsters an industry push for more revenue from items other than… (www.bloomberg.com) Mehr...

More than 24,000 United Airlines flight attendants want management at the Chicago-based carrier to know the fight isn’t over yet to reverse a controversial move announced earlier this month to cut one flight attendant from staffing assigned to United's high-margin Polaris international business class cabin. United flight attendants who belong to the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) are planning a system-wide “day of action” on Dec. 13 to protest the staffing cuts and other issues that… (www.bizjournals.com) Mehr...

American Airlines Group Inc (AAL.O) said on Wednesday it was "unaware" of some functions of an anti-stall system on Boeing Co's (BA.N) 737 MAX until last week. Boeing and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued guidance on the system last week after a Lion Air jet crashed in Indonesia on Oct. 29, killing all 189 people on board. The FAA warned airlines last week that erroneous inputs from the system's sensors could lead the jet to automatically pitch its nose… (www.yahoo.com) Mehr...